Kono nodded, "Yeah it's beautiful, and nothings wrong just frustrated by a mistake I made." He answered looking out over the waterfall. He quickly wiped the hair off his chin with his fore-leg when she mentioned it, curling his neck slightly in embarrasment.

He listened as she decided to go get food as well as bathe. He had no quarrel with her desicion it actually reminded him of his inability to wash all of his body this morning before he had gone to find her. The river in this area was just about as deeo as where he hd bathed before which meant he still wouldn't be able to wash himself properly. He pulled his wings toghter to his body in frustration. And when he thought about it even more he realized that the scales under the saddle and its straps wouldn't get clean either unless there was someone to take the saddle off. The straps weren't designed to be handled by dragons. He hurred in frustration then looked over to Selene. His eye brightened then dulled. She could do it but he wasn't sure if she'd be willing to.

As she swam over to the other side of the river Kono waded into the river himself. "Selene..." he started shuffling his feet some. "I was wondering if you could help bathe me too?" He asked quickly even though it sounded kinda wierd to him "I mean I can"t get my saddle off and I think you should be comfotable around my back errr....yeah" He said clamping his mouth shut so he would stop rambling.

The fact that there was somebody around that would pay attention and help her should they be attacked was rather assuring and made Selene much more careless of her surroundings than it might usually have. She was no hunter or any kind of real adventurer and therefore had no real knowledge of the dangers and how to prevent them but she was not completely defenceless. Over the years living with a family she had been trying to avoid as much as possible, her hearing had developed quite well and she regularly used it as her means to disappear before danger or simply something unknown to her could reach her.

As she suddenly jumped back when she realised she was being observed, even if only by a harmless fox, the young woman decided that she should not take it for granted that Kono was around and would notice if there was danger around. She absolutely had to pay more attention, something she hadn't been doing lately. If she had been attentive, she might not have been knocked down by that elderly lady. If she had thought about what she was doing, she would not have simply disappeared into the woods to hunt the noise of a waterfall without considering that there might be predators around, waiting for easy prey such as her.

Shaking herself, she tried to rid her mind of these thoughts and tell herself that as of now she would be paying much more attention, learn from her mistakes. When Kono's words pierced her pondering, she had to laugh. "Of course I will help you." With that, she jumped back in the river and swam back to him. "We'd better get to shore though to take off the saddle, I'm not sure it will be good if all of the leather is soaking wet." Already, she was on the other side. It was a good thing the river wasn't too deep or too wild. Contemplating the dragon in the water, which was by far not deep enough for him to submerge completely, she wondered how best to do this. And then her look swayed towards the waterfalll.... "Hmm....", she mused, "how about using the waterfall as a help? I scrub a little and we let the waterfall do the rest?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono nodded his thanks to her and waded back out of the river onto dry land next to Selene. "That sounds like a good idea." He answered. He shuffled a little once on land, unsure of how to move himself to make it easier for Selene to get to the straps on the saddle.

He watched selene but didn't really register what she was doing, he was well within his own thoughts. He was looking at a map in his mind of where the nearest trade routs and villages were from here. There was one by the shore past the moutnains near river taurz, and their was another south of that one by the delta. He knew that those were the closest two towns, so they would be the most convenient to get to, then they could head north again.

He shook himself from his thoughts and looked to the waterfall before looking back to Selene. "If you need me to move a certain way, just tell me" He told her with a smile.

As soon as Kono stopped shuffling around, Selene made to unfastening the straps of the saddle, not without difficulties at times obviously, since she had never done this kind of thing before. There were so many different straps and pieces of leather attached to the main piece of the saddle that it was slightly confusing at first but somehow she managed to do it somewhat decently. Simply watching when somebody else fastens it was not quite the same, and she sincerely hoped that she would be able to get the saddle back on correctly afterwards, but she wasn't going to worry about that now. All in due time. She'd be cursing enough later on when the straps would refuse to do what she wanted them to do, and she was pretty sure that was indeed what was going to happen. The sun not being quite as hot as she'd imagined, making a chill run down her spine and she shuddered, making the whole wetness slightly more uncomfortable than she'd hoped it would be.

"Oh, it doesn't really matter in what position you put yourself," Selene replied after a moment of consideration. "Just as long as you get under the waterfall, it will be just fine." The water would do a great deal of the job anyhow and it would make the bathing process very quick for the both of them. As soon as the matter of the saddle was resolved, Selene jumped back into the river and swam towards the waterfall. The force and coolness of the constant downpour took her completely by surprise though, knocking the air out of her lungs and making her breath come in little painful gasps, eyes wide open in astonishment. "Woah, I did not imagine it would be this powerful. That will make the whole process surely more interesting," she had to grin despite herself, already imagining herself being knocked off of the dragon's back while trying to scrub at various angles. Looking towards Kono, she wondered whether the waterfall would seem as powerful to him as it did to her or whether it was barely a tickling sensation on his scales. On a whim, she decided to ask this out loud: "How does this feel to you? Do you even notice there is water falling on top of your head?" she joked.

~((Feel free to take charge of the bathing, you know best where Kono wants to be scrubbed ))~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono shook himself when the saddle was finally off anf followed Selene into the water and slid under the water fall. He flicked his tail in suprise then slowely relaxed with a sigh, his head being forced to vibrate up and down under the force of the water. It felt like a deep message, "Oh I notice it. It's like a message (<- idk if thats spelt right)" He spread out his wings letting the water slam against the membrane of his wings. The sound that could be heard from underneath it could almost be compared to the sound of rain against a rooftop.

The waterfall got most of his body thorughly clean all that he really left after a few minutes of a thorough shower from the waterfall that needed to be scrubed were under his wings, which he had her stand on his elbow to reach at when he couldn't get low enough for her to reach it from the water, his chest and belly, (which ended up getting her soaked, again) and right where the saddle legs would have sat, the hollow where his shoulders met his neck. (like that?) After they had finished he wadded out of the water with his wings extended soaking up the sunlight like solar panels letting it dry him off, as well as warm him up.

He eyed the saddle once his scales had finished drying off and moved to settle near it so that Selene wouldn't have to move it as far. He guessed it weight just about as much as a horses saddle but he wasn't sure, but he had once heard a human complain about carring a stupid horse saddle "so far" so he wanted to make it easier. He was even willing to give her a nose up when she was trying to get the saddle up there if needed.

A smile curled around Selene’s lips when she watched the dragon enjoy the free massage he was getting out of the waterfall. The flow was much too strong for her to be enjoying it in this way but it did have an amazing feel to it to be caught under the water. The time for playing around was over though for her, there was work to be done before they could continue on their way.

Following Kono’s instructions, they managed to get the dragon cleaned from top to bottom. She actually quite enjoyed this bit, much more than she thought she would. She was climbing around on Kono for support as much as possible when she was stretching up to reach every bit of the underside of his wings, obviously slipping and falling back into the river a couple of times. The belly was the only bit that gave her more trouble, having to go underwater every now and then to reach some spots when her arms were not long enough. The dragon helped her as much as possible, turning in every angle, still giving her support, to make it easier on her.

When they were finally done, she followed the dragon back on dry land and collapsed into the grass to let the sun dry her up a bit. There was no way she could put the rest of her clothes back on immediately without getting everything wet, which defied the purpose of having taken them off in the first place. Once they were both somewhat dry, the young woman followed the dragon with her eyes as he settled himself next to the saddle, hinting that it was time to move on. “Oh, you’re right, we should get a move on,” she replied to the unspoken words. She quickly jumped into her trousers before she headed over to Kono and began fiddling with the leather straps again. “Well then, let’s see if we can get this on right.” She hoped it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle, and for once, she seemed lucky. “Does this look alright to you? Does it feel like it’s fastened correctly? Because I can’t really tell... The straps seem to hold when I try to pull it downwards.. ” she eyed Kono curiously, wondering if the dragon could tell better than her. Still looking at her handiwork, she grabbed her corset and strapped it into place again, readying herself to continue with the next step of their adventure.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono stretched his wings as high as they would go and felt the saddle out then nodded approvingly. "It seems to fit just like last time. He then thought a second, "Oh before we get moving we should get that leg out and cook it before it goes bad, you could probably eat it later too while we are flying if you get hungry." He suggested laying against the ground so it was easier for Selene to get up on his back. He then blew a small flame in front of him so Selene could easily toss the leg intp the fire from his back and let it cook as she got down. To put it simply so they could finish everything they needed to do and start moving faster.

Kono planned out where to head from here. There should be some trade roads not far from here. Humans tended to gravitate towrds places that were naturally rich with game and water. This area would provide such a place, so he wouldn't fly as high up in the air since they would probably end up landing not long after to question the travelers and traders that were using the roads.

Selene was quite pleased with her handiwork, especially now that Kono had approved the fitting of the saddle as well. Hopefully, it did indeed sit as well as before, because if not, it was going to be one hell of a fall for her... She shook off any such thoughts again and clambered up towards the saddle bag as Kono mentioned the leg. "You're right, this should be cooked as soon as possible. Wouldn't be fun if we had to go through all this trouble for a stupid piece of meat only to have it go bad on us before we have the chance to eat it." The leg was quickly found and once she was on her way down, she mused: "As you probably remember, I'm not very good at making a fire though..." When she suddenly heard and felt the flames behind her, she quickly added: "But obviously you've already thought of that bit." Without another word so as not to embarrass herself, she held the leg into the fire Kono so nicely provided her with and let it roast for a while.

Once that was done, she clambered back onto the dragon and made herself comfortable in the saddle. They had some sort of plan, though it was vague, but they didn't have much information to go on anyway, so there was no way to make a better plan... Selene's trains of thoughts kept entangling in her mind until she almost had herself confused, so she stopped thinking about planning. "Do you think the travellers are even going to talk to us? What with all that seems to have happened around these parts? I know that I would probably not do it if it wasn't completely necessary. Imagine you were a puny little human and there were attacks from an unknown creature, would you talk to strangers? Especially ones that are accompanied by huge dragons?" she tried to joke, though it wasn't really something to joke about much. The more she thought about it, the more she realised that this might be something quite serious, despite the fact that so far they had only rumours and no concrete information or even some kind of proof of this being real.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono stood once Selene had finished clambering into the saddle. He flapped his wings a few times testing the air and stretching out his flight muscles. He looked at her briefly when she posed the question. Kono pondered a few moments turning over the thought in his head. Sure there had been quite a few troubles recently on the road but the travelers and traders should know the difference right? It wasn't like they looked all that threatening. Then he thought about that again and took that statement back. He knew the glances he often received. No he did look threatening. Kono grumbled before he answered, "We will just have to pray that we won't be mistaken as beasts, though i am less worried since you are on my back. You look a lot less frightening than i do, but in case we are taken badly. I have wings and you have a sword.

Kono raised his wings and leaped into the air flapping his wings forcefully. He didn't give Selene any verbal warning since he figured she knew the deal with take off by now. quickly they rise above the trees but they didn't lift high into the air like usual, he had to be able tell when a person was on the road and he didn't want to fly off course again like last time, that had been enough of an annoyance. He took a deep breath relaxing into a flight pattern as he sped over the roads looking for other life forms.

(hmmmmmm somehow i think we need to put the season in here. With that statue and all XD)

“HA! Yeah, I have a sword alright… A sword I don’t know how to use. I’m not sure that is going to do us that much good,” she sneered. Though Kono was right. It was better to have one and learn how to use as she went, instead of not having a weapon at all. Especially, if Kono’s unspoken doubts would turn into a reality. How would people take to them if they thought that dragon and the young woman were threats?

Abruptly, or so it seemed to her as she was lost in thoughts and didn’t really notice the dragon’s preparations, Kono took off but she noticed, he didn’t gain very much altitude. It was odd. Despite flying relatively low and having a great view of everything happening below them – even Selene could distinguish a few objects here and there – there didn’t seem to be any life nowhere around. It was quiet, but in a very unsettling and almost too quiet kind of way. “It looks quiet from up here. Almost too quiet, don’t you think? Or are we just in a more deserted area?” Yet, there were no animals to be seen either, and the larger ones should definitely have been visible, if only the occasional deer or bear, or even another dragon of some kind. A lack of population would show a lack of life stock as well, so she wasn’t too worried about not seeing any farm animals, but even wild life seemed to have disappeared. “Kono?” Selene hesitated before continuing, uncertain of how to put her words: “Is it just me or does this all long very wrong?” A shiver went down her spine as she thought about the many possibilities of things that could have occurred in this area, but maybe it was really just her imagination roaming too wildly. Maybe, there was a very logical explanation for all this and she was blowing it all out of proportion in her mind.

~((Hmm, true! Feel free to do it, if you have an idea how to get it all in already ^-^))~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono glided over the landscape following the trade roads, but as they went on something seemed off. He wasn't surprised that they had gone a while with out seeing any humans, but he hadn't heard anything from the wildlife either. Sure they weren't that loud but usually you heard something. A crack of a branch or one bird calling to another, but he didn't hear anything. A chill went of his scales and it wasn't just the cool, late autumn air setting in. Kono shook his head, "It's weird." he agreed curtly slowly beating his wings once with a woosh of wind.

His muscles tensed and his eyes darted back and forth. "This isn't right." His brain was buzzing with warning bells. He growled shaking his head and snorting, "I'm pulling up." With that he beat his wings gaining altitude and turning quickly away from their current path and into the sky. Just as soon as they had pulled out of the area and high into the sky he heard and ominous shriek, from what sounded like a mix between a wild animal and a dragon. "The shade?" He asked out loud the more to himself then to Selene.

An icy chill rushed down Selene’s spine as the horrible sound struck her ears. Her fingers tensed around the dragon’s spine she’d been gripping, her knuckles turning white from the effort. Something was wrong, very wrong, and the most terrifying thing about this thought was that they had no idea what it was. Pulling up had been a good idea, she definitely did not want to be closer to this thing, whatever it was, than necessary, but they did have to find out what was happening below them, no matter what. “Can you see anything?” Selene was shifting around in the saddle, straining her eyes to detect any kind of movement but nothing.

Then the sound was heard again.A menacing shriek that seemed to vary in pitch, somehow mixed in with a deep, threatening growl. It was immediately followed by a high-pitched scream that suddenly cut off. Then there was only silence.

Every hair on Selene’s body was standing on end and she was trembling, not from the wind who had decided to remind them that it was indeed late autumn, despite the nice and warming sunshine earlier this morning. “That was a human sound,” she finally stated, barely managing a whisper, hoping that Kono would hear nevertheless. She didn’t want to speak louder for fear the monster could hear them, and she could not even have spoken louder even if she’d tried. “If that is the Shade’s doing, then I am not sure I want to find out more.” Selene was afraid, scared beyond her wits, because she did not understand, and most of all did not know, what was happening. But she knew that they had to, if they wanted to help get rid of this thing, then they had to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono hissed half in fear half in anger. His instincts told him to either burn the whole place to the ground or fly away. He snorted shaking his head, "We have to check it out. I'm not going in but I have to fly over and check it out. Taking a deep breathe he tilted his wings back and slowly decreased his altitude though his muscles were still tight with apprehension.

He sank until his could see vaguely through the trees surrounding the area. He doubted any beast would stay out in the open for long after making a kill. He surveyed the area not realizing that as he was doing so he was losing altitude. Thats was until he heard another screech and saw a form dash through the trees towards his direction. The unknown does strange things to creatures. It makes them scare easily and imagine things that never really happened. Kono quickly beat his wings fiercely regaining his altitude thinking he had seen the thing lung at him, but he quickly saw that it hadn't. The thing in the bushes may have screeched at him but it didn't attack. He saw the shadowy form of a shadowy creature retreat back into the dark shadows of the thicker trees. He couldn't quite make out what it was, but he knew one thing it wasn't friendly.

"Yes. It was a humans scream...We are going to explore elsewhere. I want to learn about the shade, without actually meeting it." He said pulling off to track a different trade path. "lets pray, we don't meet him again until we are both ready. You need to practice with your sword, and I need to gather information. It would spell our end if we did not prepare, even if the shade happens to be small."

“I’m hoping he is dead,” Selene murmured. “It is a horrifying thought that the Shade might torture them or worse. Worse than knowing it is a fierce killer.” But then she realised that this was not true. No matter how bad it was going to get, she would always choose the option to survive in hopes of finding a way out of the situation or quite simply of being rescued by someone. So she reverted: “No, actually. It might be bad, but better to be alive than dead.” And that was the truth, for her at least, even though it sent a shiver down her spine only thinking of what the Shade might have done for that person to utter such a terrifying sound.

Selene was still holding her grip on Kono as tightly as before, her hand would be cramped later on, but she did not care. The lower the dragon got, the more she feared that something might suddenly jump up at them. Kono was right, they had to investigate this either way but there was a strange kind of sensation pulsating through the air and the young woman felt chill after chill running down her spine until her eyes suddenly stopped on a shadowy figure racing through the trees underneath towards Kono. Her body temperature was suddenly rising as adrenaline started pumping through her veins and she was about to scream at Kono to get the hell out of there, when the dragon pulled up in one quick movement and flew away.

“Can it fly??” her voice was still shaking after they were miles away from the place, already flying towards the next best town to gather further information and probably tell the people what had happened. She still felt like she was in shock and it was only now that she realised she could barely move her fingers anymore. She had been holding on too strongly for too long. Lightly wiggling her fingers as much as was possible, she tried to regain their proper use, while she was contemplating what had happened and what they could do. “What was that thing down there? Do you think that really was the Shade the horse dragon has told us about? Do you think it was alone? Or are there more of it? Do you even think people will believe us? If they even want to talk to us…” When she noticed, she was babbling, she stopped herself. There was no need to state the obvious, she was nervous and afraid, and she didn’t know how to counter it, but she desperately needed to calm herself down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono huffed out a breath he had unknowingly been holding, "I don't think so. It seemed pretty adamant about getting us away so if it could it would have flown after us...I think. That could possibly be why it hasn't gotten to dragons yet...maybe." Kono shook his head as if to move on to another subject. "We should definitely follow this road to the next town, when we get there you can go ask around inside the town. I will go around outside...since I can't really fit in the narrow streets of a human town.

Kono listened to Selene babble for a while, for some reason it was relaxing to hear. "I think some people will believe us and some will not. Have you seen how empty this road is? It means that something has spooked them, which will also means that they will be more likely to panic when we tell them, so we must approach this carefully. Given the current situation they may not want to talk to me though, since most probably don't know what the shade looks like so for all they know I could be it. I will stay outside." He flapped his wings and lowered until they were whizzing over the landscape their shadow covering the road.

“You’re right, we’ll have to try, no matter what will happen.” Selene took a deep breath and tried to do nothing but follow Kono’s flight movements, tried to not even think, which turned out to be impossible. Yet, she managed to calm down a little, her fingers at full use again now when she was not holding on to Kono for dear life. “Hopefully it really hasn’t gotten to dragons yet, because if the humans don’t want to help, we’ll need to go look elsewhere…” she murmured more to herself than to Kono, but she was relatively sure he had heard anyway.

As they kept soaring on, lower and lower, almost hovering just above the landscape, a small village came into view. Stretching out her arm to point at it – in a probably very useless movement, since Kono had better eyesight than her and was certainly not going to see her point -, she mused: “Maybe we could try here? See what they’ll have to say? If they’re willing to help? Or something.. at least maybe.”

As they landed in close proximity to the village’s outskirts, Selene jumped of Kono’s back and looked at him: “I will be as quick as possible. Hopefully, this will be worth it.” And with that, she turned around and headed towards the village. It looked strangely deserted. Even for a village, it was too quiet, there were no kids playing, no animal sounds, no people running around. No signs of life. At all. Selene stood in the middle of the street, pivoting but still could not see anyone. Not too far, she could detect the sign of a bar, so she stomped towards it in hopes that maybe inside the bar there was somebody that could help her, when all of a sudden, she saw a figure move away from a window in a nearby house. The same happened in a different house not too far away and she then realised that the people were still there but they were all in hiding, thus she could probably go knocking, but she was fairly certain that nobody would reply.

However, the idea with the bar was a dead end. The door was firmly locked. Selene stood there, contemplating what she should do next, when she heard a noise from not too far off. Something was creeping around this place with low, dragging feet. Then the noise stopped. Selene froze on the spot, her hand still lifted to shadow her face as she was trying to peek inside the window of the bar. When the voice sounded out from behind her, she almost jumped out of her own skin: “Can I help you, miss?”

~((I took the liberty of slightly powerplaying Kono to move on a little, hope that’s ok!))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono rooted around outside the village. The village was oddly deserted looking, so he started to rout around through the abandoned merchandise stalls on the outskirts of the village. He snorted in frustration when he found nothing. Apparently the humans knew about the shade, because they were hiding away, safe in there homes. He lowered himself closer to the ground and looked into the window of one of the houses, only to see the shadow of a human cowering in a corner.

Kono snorted and turned away, curiously he snuck around to try and find Selene, only to see her faceing someone else. Everything looked to be okay, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions. He looked back to the saddle atop his back. SHe had left her sword. He snorted in frustration. WHy get one if you aren't going to bring it anywhere. He hurred in frustration before turning away and watching from a distance so as not to be seen by the human that was adressing Selene.

The man who was standing in front of her looked fairly like a normal farmer, except for maybe the slightly reddish nose that hinted towards alcoholic more than someone who actually did physical work. Appearance-wise, he seemed to be friendly enough, no visible weapons, friendly yet somehow closed up face which was probably due to recent events and there was nothing in his voice that suggested he was about to either jump her bones or blow out her life flame.

"Well, yes actually. That would be very kind, thank you." Selene decided that the straight forward polite method would be the best one in this case. "Is there no one in this village anymore? It looks so very deserted?" The man chuckled, though only faintly amused, probably at her. "The people are still here, well most of them at least, but they're afraid to come out." He gave her a knowing look and Selene immediately took the bait. "Oh, why is that?" She asked, eyes opened wide in an innocently shocked look, which seemed to please the man very much as he immediately started spilling the beans. "Well, you see, there's been mysterious sightings." He nodded at this with a very serious look on his face. "And a few people have even disappeared but nobody knows where and how. They say that an evil shade is out there that makes people disappear into thin air, but I don't believe that. They've all been drinking too much potato liquor in my opinion." Which would explain why your face is so swollen and red, Selene thought. Encouragingly, she nodded at the man and gasped. "That sounds awful!" The man, in full swing now, kept going: "Yes, yes, indeed! I've been telling them that it really is nothing, but you see, some of the children are now gone too, and that makes for a little fear,too, you know. People are hiding indoors, not trusting outsiders anymore, and whoever comes through here, immediately leaves again because it looks so dead here. People don't know how to enjoy themselves anymore, and it's really say, you know?"

Seeing that the man was now slightly off track, Selene innocently asked: "Have you seen this thing? This shade?" "Oh no, no, never. Only heard rumours. But it says it is an evil being. Very dangerous. Nobody will want to go near it, that I can promise you. And it's coming closer to the village the longer it stays here." Selene again nodded along to his words, but not wanting to remain here much longer, sensing that the man would otherwise maybe not stop talking at all anymore, even though he had helped her quite a lot, she said, in a scared voice: "Oh, no. I could not stay here if such is the case. I thank you very much for the warning, dear sir, but I better be off now. This is no place for a young woman such as myself." The man could only agree, but she was already on her way, quickly disappearing behind the next house, and running towards Kono. As soon as she reached him, she saw the disapproving look on his face and her eyes flickered back to where she had come from and to the sword on the saddle. "Ha.. I'm.. ehm.. sorry?" she murmured, before she quickly related all she'd heard, finishing with: "What do you make of this?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono grunted disapprovingly when she told him the details of what the man said. "It must be getting bolder. To go after children is asking for a fight. It has also developed a liking to human flesh. It sounds like this thing is going after them like prey." he looked round a snuffed the air once more before continuing. "I think it is also a being that keeps a territory. I've been smelling the same scent over and over again, and it's defiantly not a human scent. Its territory must be massive though with how many have been effected." Kono flicked his tail thinking.

He shook his head and crouched down ushering for Selene to get on. "We need to find someone who can teach you how to wield a sword as well as find a place to gather information... We should look for some of the larger villages. “He suggested narrowing his eyed when he mentioned her sword. In the south he knew that death rinks use to be many of the cities major attraction and so a great many master swordsmen and women had gathered there, but since the death rings were banned many of the great masters had left, taking to wandering or mercenary work. It would be difficult to track them down. Up in the mountains he remembered the occasional foolish dragon slayer apprentice who tried to show off his skill with a sword, but that was many thousands of years ago. He doubted that whoever had been there then was still around. So he would stick to looking around this part of the island. There was bound to be someone who could wield a sword around.

Selene shuddered at Kono's comment of the shade going after human flesh like it was its main food source. She sincerely hoped it would never get a grip on her. "Hm, territory.. yes, it would make sense. As for it being so big, maybe it just wants to take over the whole island for itself? Or there actually is more than one shade? That could be, right? Though I'm hoping it's not the case. One already sounds awful enough." Again, a shiver ran down her spine and she couldn't suppress the instinctive movement to cross her arms over her chest in an attempt to warm and comfort herself.

Following the dragon's suggestive huddling on the floor, she clambered up into the saddle, purposefully ignoring the look he gave her at the mention of the sword. "If worse comes to worse, I will simply learn by doing. It cannot be that hard now, can it?" She knew it was only wishful thinking that she might magically pick up this skill by being coerced into a fight, but it was better than telling herself all the time that she could not do it, which she would have done under normal circumstances.

Once they were on their way again, Selene let her thoughts go wild once more, though she tried to control them slightly better this time than earlier where she had randomly begun babbling like a five-year-old. However, there was one thing that kept popping to the foreground as Kono kept flying in search of a bigger settlement. "Do you really think that man can be trusted? I mean, he was the only one out there and he was very talkative for someone living in a village where a shade has been scaring the hell out of everyone else. It all seems so.... far-fetched."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono snorted when she asked about the man, "I didn't trust him farther than I could spit him. That’s why I was hanging back behind you when I noticed you were talking to him. Out of sight but watching very closely." Kono slowly banked away from the town towards the south. He hoped that at least one person would still be in one of the old arena towns. He thought about her statement some more too, "Did he say he had lived in the town long?" he asked making slightly idle conversation. He flapped his wings quickening his pace the sun was past its peak in the sky and he wanted to cover a good amount of ground before the sun set for the night. He didn't particularly enjoy the mountainless region of the island. He liked the trees but the open plains unnerved him slightly, it seemed impossible someplace could be so flat.

“Hm, I don’t think he said how long he had been there. He only kept repeating that the other people were acting silly, that they were far too easily scared. It might just have been the alcohol influence that made him so talkative and so very unafraid of anything.” Selene sighed, turning the conversation over and over again in her head, but there was nothing she could really conclude out of this. Most of it just came down to speculation again and that was in no way a step forward.

Letting her thoughts drift off, she followed Kono’s body movement, listening to the rhythmic flap-flap of his wings as they made their way south in hopes of finding something more useful than this. Maybe they could even find someone who was willing to help them with this quest, but she had hoped that for this village as well and it had been a letdown. While they were flying over the sand plains, with nothing but flat earth underneath them, without shade or hiding places, she felt a tickle in her neck. This was a weird place. She had never been here before, but she had heard stories of people getting lost in the sand plains and never coming back, people that been endlessly wandering through the desert in hopes of finding civilisation or maybe just a drop of water. As she thought about it, she then suddenly wondered where those stories even came from if the people themselves never returned to tell them, which in turn could also be said for the shade. How can those stories suddenly appear if there were no survivors or if people were taken away by the shade never to return – until now. How could anyone really know what has happened and what the shade actually did with them?

“Kono?” Selene tested her volume. “How can we even be sure what we have heard about the shade is true? How can we be sure it is really that evil as it has been said? Imagine for a moment that the thing we have encountered earlier was not a shade but something entirely different. How can people be certain what has happened to those that have gone missing? For all we know, the shade could have taken them to a better place entirely?” It sounded like a fairy tale but yet they had better consider a few more possibilities before they got themselves into trouble with this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono huffed out a breath of smoke as he thought. "Well if there was always no survivors where would the stories come from? Most likely someone has made it out alive...but it is possible that these stories were born out of fear and the beast isn't half as evil as we have been lead to believe. Fear can make even the strongest opponent falter." he fell silent as he turned over the question in his head, trying to approach it from every angle. "We do not know enough about the shade to make assumptions, but I will venture to assume that the people who are taken do not enjoy their time there." He shuddered as he remembered that horrible scream when they were traveling along the trade road.

Kono looked into the setting sun squinting against it's light to search for the town that sat at the edge of this desert. It was the first village he could think of that had once contained an arena, though the walls of the arena still stood it was now filled with kiosk of merchants and shoppers. There, it was just on the edge of his vision but he figured he could reach it before it got pitch black outside, the approaching cloud cover meant there would be no stars or moon to light there path tonight and he couldn't fly without at least some light.

Selene shifted in the saddle, unsure of what was going to happen. “Yes, I guess you’re right,” she reluctantly agreed, still having hoped somewhere deep down that they had been wrong and it was all only half as bad as it now seemed. As a shudder went through the dragon, Selene got oddly shaken on his back and she gripped a spine tightly again, just to be on the safe side. The longer they were flying, the more tired she grew. Her muscles started being sore and she was barely able to keep her eyes open any longer. That was until on the horizon appeared the outlines of a town, and something that oddly looked like a kind of arena. However, it was obviously not used as such anymore, as they could easily see once they got closer as everything was covered with random stalls and filled with masses of people. They were lucky that Kono could reach the town before the sun had completely disappeared out of the sky but Selene did not feel really comfortable going into such a mass of people at the moment. Her last two encounters with strangers had been somewhat odd, even though neither of them had been evil – or had done anything to her, except the little bump on the head, which she now inadvertently touched. It was barely noticeable however.

“I am not sure about this, maybe we should go into the city in the morning? When there’s less likely to be a million scoundrels milling around?” Selene could not quite explain why she was suddenly so very reluctant to go into the city but she usually trusted her gut.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

Kono grunted and veered of his original course slightly to land outside the cities walls. He flapped hard as he came in for a landing among the shadows of the city from the low light of the moon. Curling around he settled down to let selene off his back. His eyes were watchful of the environment around them. "We can settle here till morning if you like." he glanced at her curiously before raising his head, "It'll be too dark for even me to see tonight." he commented absently before shaking his head.

Once selene was off (assuming she gets off XD) Kono rolled onto his side moving one wing so it was comfortably sprawled against the ground and resting his other loosely across his legs, offering to act as a shelter (and heater) for selene from the cold.

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Dragons' Cove

An island (that is more of a continent) that is completely cut off from the world it is placed in. If the foreigners are anything to go by, it may be the only innately magical part of the world, feeding out to other areas. It has a delicate balance, and its nature changes depending on the actions of its inhabitants.

This makes it either perfectly pleasant or bitterly brutal to live on, depending on your era. Explore its history with caution, but take time to stop and appreciate it as well.